416 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
That I should in one way or another have solved this mys* 
tery of mysteries seemed to my friend a matter of course. 
" I have not even a theory of magnetism " was my reply. 
We ought to learn to wait. We ought assuredly to pause 
before closing with the advances of those expounders of 
the ways of God to men, who offer us intellectual peace at 
the modest cost of intellectual life. 
The teachers of the world ought to be its best men, and 
for the present at all events such men must learn self-trust. 
By the fullness and freshness of their own lives and utter- 
euces they must awaken life in others. The hopes and 
terrors which influenced our fathers are passing away, and 
our trust henceforth must rest on the innate strength of 
man's moral nature. And here, I think, the poet will 
have a great part to play in the future culture of the world. 
To him, when he rightly understands his mission, and does 
not flinch from the tonic discipline which it assuredly 
demands, we have a right to look for that heightening and 
brightening of life which so many of us need. To him it is 
given for a long time to come to fill those shores which the 
recession of the theologic tide has left exposed. Void of 
offense to science, he may freely deal with conceptions 
which science shuns, and become the illustrator and 
interpreter of that Power which as 
" Jehovah, Jove, or Lord," 
has hitherto filled and strengthened the human heart. 
Let me utter one practical word in conclusion take care 
of your health. There have been men who by wise atten- 
tion to this point might have risen to any eminence 
might have made great discoveries, written great poems, 
commanded armies, or ruled states, but who by unwise 
neglect of this point have come to nothing. Imagine Her- 
cules as oarsman in a rotten boat; what can he do there 
but by the very force of his stroke expedite the ruin of his 
craft? Take care then of the timbers of your boat, and 
avoid all practices likely to introduce either wet or dry rot 
among them. And this is not to be accomplished by 
desultory or intermittent efforts of the will, but by the for- 
mation of habits. The will no doubt has sometimes to put 
forth its strength in order to crush the special temptation. 
But the formation of right habits is essential to your per- 
